


From the ashes, we have risen

by whimsicalwombat



Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: Gen, Meera is alive AU, Post Season 3 finale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 07:17:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7425268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicalwombat/pseuds/whimsicalwombat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In all truthfulness, CIA Agent Meera Malik survived the injuries inflicted upon her during the hunt for Berlin, but the Agency faked her death as a cover for a long term undercover operation.  </p><p>However, someone up along the chain of command forgot to mention that to the taskforce at the Post Office.  </p><p>When Meera returns to the Post Office in the aftermath of Liz's own faked death, and needs help with a new case, she finds the team is nothing like the one she left behind two years earlier. </p><p>She has an awful lot to answer for... But in every crisis one can find a friend somewhere, and in this case, there are two who are there and ready to understand it all... Two, who understand exactly what she has been through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the ashes, we have risen

**Author's Note:**

> I personally thought Meera was fantastic, and I was so disappointed when she died without further exploration of her character. I'd love to see a version of the show where both Meera and Samar are on the team at the same time too, so this is my take on she could possibly still be alive after that particularly gruesome death in the Season 1 finale. 
> 
> Note; Meera's return to the living in this story is inspired by a similar storyline from canon Criminal Minds Seasons 6 and 7 involving the character Emily Prentiss. (With slight reversal, though. For those unaware, Prentiss' death was faked to protect her and her team from the fallout of a previous long term operation, not the other way around.)

Meera Malik carefully smoothed down the sides of her blazer as she strode down the street that was home to Liz's favourite coffee shop. It had been a while since she was there last, that was for sure. To be specific, in fact, it had been about two years.

Two years, since her throat was slashed in that nightclub during the hunt for Berlin.

She hadn't been back to that coffee shop since. She simply hadn't been allowed to. After being taken straight to the hospital from the club, and finally stabilised after the mad rush to stem all the bleeding, the CIA had arranged a covert transport from that hospital to another, where she was admitted under a false name, with a full security detail, to a classified wing where all the patients were operatives on top secret assignments, or witnesses needing treatment while under protection from classified crimes. From there, Meera's death certificate was issued, and the taskforce at the Post Office mourned her loss, all the while she remained very much alive in secret –and ordered to avoid all places she knew were frequented by her former team, lest they accidentally see her and discover the truth. 

The CIA had needed a real operative to go undercover as the rogue version of themselves, and the backstopping had to include a faked death. Meera had been on the shortlist of potential agents for the job, and when the opportunity arose naturally, the Agency figured; why not make the most of it once it was guaranteed that she had in fact, survived. Since then, the assignment had come to its end, and Meera had returned to her normal life –well, as normal a life as a CIA agent tended to lead- but in having left her previous assignment at the taskforce, her credentials to enter the Post Office site had remained void. 

That was, until now, of course.

Now, she had a new case, and that new case was one she was stuck on. It was one where the assistance of one Raymond Reddington might come in handy and well, even though Meera hadn't been allowed to return to the Post Office before now, that didn't exactly wipe her memory of its existence. And so, there she was, after having requested a new joint operation, and being re-cleared to enter the site, she was strolling down that street to where she knew Liz would likely be, to ask for her help.

It really had been a while.

Meera was uncharacteristically nervous, for once. A lot had changed in two years. Not just _her_ life, but if the news was anything to go by, life at the Post Office appeared to have changed too. Of course, she didn't know all the ins and outs of what was happening, but there was no way she could miss hearing about the shooting of the Attorney General, or that Liz was the prime suspect. After that, Meera had followed every piece of news she could get her hands on, and asked to be read in on every barely related case she heard of, in a desperate effort to follow along with everything that was happening with her old friends... And since Liz's name was cleared, the news of her case had gone awfully quiet. Meera didn't know anything else that had happened after that. She simply assumed that life at the taskforce had then returned to normal.

She was supposed to go straight to the Post Office, not deviate via the coffee shop on her way there, but Meera knew that not all her former coworkers would take lightly to her having faked her death, and so she felt the need to see Liz first, and find herself a friend in the group on more neutral territory. 

Meera stood directly across the street from the coffee shop, waiting for Liz to appear. It only took about five minutes, before that familiar dark pony tail and purposeful march broke its way through the morning coffee crowd. Meera followed Liz along from the other side of the street, until Liz suddenly stopped and turned, the little hairs on the back her neck prickling at the sensation of being watched. Liz slowly panned her gaze around the street, searching for whomever it was that was following her...

...Until her gaze landed on Meera. 

Meera maintained a neutral expression as she held Liz's steely gaze for those extra few seconds. She watched Liz's jaw drop slightly, before she hurriedly turned on her heels and walked towards the small park around the corner, knowing Liz would undoubtedly follow. 

Liz did so, her brow furrowed in intense confusion. She stopped for a second in the centre of the park, having momentarily lost sight of Meera, until a hand tapped gently on her shoulder. Liz turned on the spot, and suddenly paused in shock, taking in the sight that was Meera standing there _alive_ after having supposedly been dead for two years. Without a word, Liz suddenly lurched forward, wrapping her arms around Meera and pulling her into a close hug.   
'I’m so glad to see you,' was all that Liz could manage to string together, her voice barely audible through her surprised gasp. Meera let out a sigh of relief; at least there was one person in the taskforce who wasn't angry with her for faking her death.

Little did Meera realise, that was because Liz had just returned from doing more or less the same thing. 

Liz didn't ask for an explanation, but Meera offered one anyway, as quickly as she could. Liz's eyes grew steadily wider in surprise as Meera told her story, before Liz quickly launched into her own tale of temporary disappearance. In part, it made Meera feel even more glad that she had reached out to Liz first even though she wasn't supposed to; coming back from the dead was a level of difficult that was impossible to describe but now at least, they each had someone to stand beside. 

/*/*/*/*

Those familiar, heavy elevator doors rumbled open in their faces, and Meera and Liz stepped straight into the war room. At the very least, it _looked_ much the same as it always had before. They continued striding across the cement floor, heading for the stairs that led to Director Cooper's office.  
'What the _hell_ ,' a familiar voice sounded from behind her, causing both Meera and Liz to stop in their tracks. They turned on the spot; Ressler was standing there by one of the columns, apparently having spotted them as they marched past. He was frozen to the spot, almost a full three shades paler, as he stared at Meera in shock. Meera furrowed her brow in confusion; _why was he looking at her like that?_ Ressler paused for a split second longer before regaining his ability to speak; 'but... Meera, you're supposed to be _dead_.' Meera's face crumpled. _Oh no.._. She was told that once her assignment was complete and it was safe to return to her normal life, all those who believed she was dead would be told otherwise as soon as the relevant paperwork was filed to void her death certificate. Liz's surprise was one thing; upon explanation of what had happened, they both had simply assumed that Liz had missed the memo while preoccupied with her own chaos.

But clearly, Liz _wasn't_ the only one who had missed that very particular memo. 

'Oh, well... Funny story, that one,' Meera began. How could she possibly explain the last two years in one simple, short, standing conversation? It was hard enough having tried to explain it all to Liz, and Liz at least had some of her own context to help her understand. Instead, Meera gestured for Ressler to follow them up to stairs to Cooper's office. Perhaps he would be able to help her make sense of it all. 

Ressler followed wordlessly. Liz turning up alive after all was one thing, but Meera too? The chances of just one of those incidences happening were ridiculous, let alone two... Part of him wondered if this time, he really was seeing a ghost.

/*/*/*/*

Meera paced back and forth inside the ladies room, frustrated at whatever screw up in the paperwork had caused this even bigger screw up in the Post Office. 

Cooper had missed the memo about her being alive too, as it were. 

After much explanation in the privacy of his office, and time to allow both Cooper and Ressler to at least overcome some of the shock, she had continued on with her request for Reddington's assistance, informed them that she had been appointed as their liaison, and her superiors were on their way to brief the team on the highly sensitive case. Cooper had promptly sent her back downstairs with Liz, to call Reddington instead. And so, Meera had indeed gone downstairs, only to suffer the same debacle all over again with Aram. Apparently, the _entire_ Post Office had missed the communication from the Agency to say she was alive. Liz at least, seemed to understand the predicament and stood by her side quietly the entire time, only speaking up on occasion to jump in with a few words of defence but otherwise simply standing there in determined solidarity with her. After a further catch up in the break room, Meera understood why; Liz's return from the dead had just been met with mixed reactions too.

No wonder the taskforce was taking her own re-appearance particularly badly. 

On the plus side, the taskforce had gained a new recruit since her departure; Mossad Agent Samar Navabi. It went without saying that as CIA and Mossad agents, respectively, they were instantly suspicious of each other. But nonetheless, at least there was one person around who hadn't known her before she 'died' and therefore, wasn't so shocked to see her alive. 

However, that didn't relieve the frustration. 

Meera wanted to get on with her case, and that was proving difficult with everyone so suddenly confused and emotional instead of ready to listen to the case details. So instead she had retreated to the relative privacy of the bathroom, to figure out where on earth to go from there. 

A soft knock on the door jolted Meera from her internal, frustrated rambling, and all of two seconds later Liz walked in, closely followed by Samar.  

'Your boss is here for the briefing,' Liz gently informed her. Meera tried to smile back in appreciation, but faltered instead out of sheer dejection. It wasn't as if she was expecting a parade of welcome wishers with colourful confetti and helium filled balloons, but it would have been nice to be met with a few smiles -or at the very least, a sense that people were relieved she wasn't dead- rather than mere, angry confusion. 'Hey, don't let the team's shock hold you back,' Liz added softly, after a few more seconds passed but Meera hadn't made any move to leave the bathroom and return to the war room. 'They'll get over it eventually. It just doesn't help that they're still trying to wrap their heads around _my_ return, without throwing yours into the mix too... But in the meantime, we've got you covered.' Meera's gaze snapped suddenly back to Liz's.   
' _We?'_  
'Yep.' Liz glanced pointedly at Samar still standing there silently by her side, lips pursed and eyes focused intently on the crack in the floor tile by her feet as if she really didn't want to be there, but had allowed Liz to drag her along anyway. Samar looked up slowly as Liz's gaze began to feel like a laser beam boring into the side of her head, and she let out a tiny, reluctant sigh.  
'Yes, _we_ ,' she confirmed. 'You know Mossad isn't too dissimilar to the CIA... Let's just say that I've had an experience with 'disappearing' as well, so... I get it.'

That was why although Samar was still processing Liz's surprise return too, she wasn't quite as taken aback by it as some of the others on the team. She and Meera exchanged a very particular look that only people in their very particular position could understand; they didn't know each other, and they sure as hell didn't _trust_ each other as far as they could poke each other with a twenty foot pole, but they _did_ understand one another, and there was a certain level of respect for one another that came from that very understanding of exactly what they had all had to go through over time as part of their chosen career paths. In short, despite everything, so long as they were on the same team on this case, they wouldn't hesitate to back each other up when it came to dealing with all the mess. Meera gave an appreciative nod of her own, and Samar resumed her usual, calculating, fly on the wall style silence that she reserved for those she didn't know. Liz opened the bathroom door, gesturing for them all to get moving and they did so; Meera surrounded either side by both her two supporters –friend, or not.  

/*/*/*/* 

The briefing did much to pique Reddington's curiosities, but little to ease the unsettled feeling that lingered in the air amongst the team. Nonetheless, with the leads the Agency had followed thus far, the small handful more that Reddington added to fill in the blanks, and the combined capabilities of the taskforce and Meera's own smaller team, the case was closed in all of three days. 

The team slowly adjusted to the idea of Meera being back from the dead and by the end of it, despite still grappling with his own objection to the idea of faking one's death, Ressler did grudgingly offer a muttered 'welcome back' as Meera at the last minute happened to see and stop a suspect lurking in the field who was about to attack Ressler from behind. 

Ressler trudged contemplatively back to his office to reflect on it all as he wrote up his case reports. Cooper remained in his office, briefing Meera's superiors on the end result and Aram, after finally getting over his own shock and suddenly lurching forwards without even thinking about it to give Meera a relieved hug of his own, scurried away to the break room with a touch of embarrassment.

Liz eyed Meera and Samar, the three of them then the only ones left in the war room, and proposed that they go out for a quick round of after work drinks before heading home. The other two, equally tired of chaos and wanting for things to get back to normal, promptly agreed. Anything really, to have a more light-hearted moment after all their recent stresses.  

/*/*/*/*

'Another case solved, and another question of what Reddington wanted from that case remains unanswered, as per usual,' Liz piped up, offering her glass for the others to clink. 'Do you think you'll come back to the taskforce?' She asked Meera, 'permanently?' Meera hesitated for a moment before responding;  
'I wouldn't mind it,' she said slowly, and thoughtfully, determined to be careful with the words she chose. 'Once the rest of them get over the idea of us both being alive, I guess it'd make a nice change of scenery from Langley, just like it did the first time round.'  
'Maybe in the meantime you could just stop by from time to time...' Samar let out a wry smile as she spoke; 'you know, work on your 'liaising' or whatever it is the Agency thinks you were doing.' She and Meera exchanged subtle, amused glances at the idea; very little 'liaising' happened between their respective agencies and the Bureau, despite the fragile nature of their 'on loan' positions to the taskforce. They were both far too busy being engrossed in the cases and the fieldwork to worry about additional paperwork.  
'It'd be nice to have another woman around for a change,' Liz added, letting out a smirk of her own.   
'You have no idea how bad it was while you were gone,' Samar suddenly groaned. 'I was the only woman there, and I could _not_ get Ressler and Aram to stop throwing all their things around the locker area, it was such a mess. How on earth did you manage to keep them in line before that?'   
'Oh, I can answer that one,' Meera said with a laugh, exchanging a knowing glance with Liz. 'Ressler you threaten with some antiquated regulation about the security risk of personal property being left unsupervised on Bureau black sites, and to Aram you mutter under your breath as you walk past him about needing a new guinea pig because your enhanced interrogation skills are getting rusty.'  

Samar clasped a hand over her mouth to try and stop herself from laughing –and failed dismally. She let out a smile that though small, was the first she had directed at Meera at all over the last couple of days and thus, the meaning was understood; if Meera did return to the Post Office, they would probably work together quite well. 

Nonetheless, Liz –with an amused grin of her own, and as she signalled the bartender for another round of drinks for them all- made a mental note not to let the two of them conduct any interrogations together, unsupervised.  

She certainly did _not_ want to know how that round of questioning would go.


End file.
